Tuesday, October 26, 2010

VIZ celebrates 200 issues

With all the anticipation surrounding the new look Dandy (out tomorrow) another comic milestone is in danger of being overshadowed. The UK's top selling top-shelf comic Viz has reached the landmark 200th issue.

With a fantastic cover by Simon Thorp the latest issue features a wealth of its popular characters including promiscuous hilarity with The Fat Slags, bittersweet drunken japes with 8 Ace and sweary sniggers with Roger Mellie, The Man on the Telly. Lots of amusing articles too, including How Mice are Made and Prince on Mince.

There's also a Felix and His Amazing Underpants story where he meets a comic collector. That'll probably offend someone it's not meant to.

4 comments:

I've almost finished reading the 200th Viz and have to say I'm rather disappointed. Is it me, or is it the case that it's just not as funny as it used to be? For a 200th issue, couldn't they have reprinted or resurrected some of their older classics like Buster Gonad, Billy the Fish, or Black Bag? I don't find any humor at all in a lot of the new stuff (Drunken Bakers is more like a horror / existential angst strip) and I'd rate this issue as "mildly amusing" at best.

The New Dandy on the other hand: yr synopsis alone makes it sound much more amusing & I'm going to get hold of a copy. (I was always a Beano rather than Dandy person but D Dan and one or two others made it worthwhile to buy the two.)

"It's not as funny as it used to be" is of course a Viz catchphrase in itself now. However humour is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I find it as funny as ever, but perhaps the humour style of Viz has become so mainstream after 30 years that it now dilutes its impact?

For example, the Harry and Paul tv series is pretty much a tv version of Viz, so that style of humour is no longer alternative. I dunno. I think Viz is still witty and there's always something that makes me laugh out loud in every issue.

I don't know either, especially as I don't read every issue, but it does seem to me that the wit swings up and down like a yo-yo. For instance, I thought the "How Lesbians Work" issue was very funny and that was fairly recent (about 12 months ago?). I guess, for the 200th issue, I was hoping for something exceptional. No doubt it'll come, but you're right: the promo says "3rd or 4th (or 5th?) funniest mag in UK."

See you at ICE!

About Me

I work as a professional humour comics artist and writer and have been freelancing full time since 1984, creating many characters such as TOM THUG, PETE AND HIS PIMPLE, COMBAT COLIN, BRICKMAN, ROBO-CAPERS, DEREK THE TROLL, SUBURBAN SATANISTS and others.
I've freelanced for IPC, Marvel Comics, Egmont, Panini,D.C. Thomson, and many others, covering the comics field from originated characters to licensed properties, pre-school to adult on comics such as BUSTER, OINK!, BEANO, DANDY, TRANSFORMERS, SONIC THE COMIC, TOXIC, VIZ, CiTV TELLYTOTS, LEGO ADVENTURES, HERMAN HEDNING, SWEET FA, ACTION FORCE, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, RAMPAGE, LUCKY BAG COMIC, SWIFTSURE, WARLOCK, WHITE DWARF, ACES WEEKLY, THE DAREDEVILS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, and many more.
My recent comics work has included:'Team Toxic' for Egmont's TOXIC magazine'Postman Prat', 'Kid Cops' and 'The Dark Newt' for THE DANDY'Rasher', 'Doctor Flu', 'Celebs on a Sledge', 'Rubbish Robots', 'Lord Snooty' and 'Ivy the Terrible' for THE BEANO.
'Felix and His Amazing Underpants', 'Pathetic Sharks' and 'Suicidal Syd' for adult comic VIZ. 'The Daft Dimension' for DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE.

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About this blog:

Established in 2006, BLIMEY! is a blog that looks back at classic British comics and sometimes reports on current and upcoming titles. The images of comics on my blog are ones I've scanned from my own personal collection or, in the case of some current issues, are promotional images sent to me by the publishers. I do not support 'piracy' and unlike some I do not use images from dodgy illegal comic scan DVDs.

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